Bug Description

Binary package hint: vlc

VLC 0.9.2 has just been released. This is a major update to the current version of VLC in the repositories.

The website is currently a little flaky, but the changes include:

What's new in this version:
The 0.9 version of VLC media player adds a new interface module for Linux, Unix and Windows, a media library and an improved playlist, many new inputs and codecs support and many new audio and video filters.
For video playback, new protocols, new codecs, new demuxers and many bug-fixes have been added to support more formats.
For audio playback, cover art and metadata support (and editing) have been vastly enhanced. It can play audio when the playback speed is changed.
For the developers, libVLC has been simplified and improved, many bindings for many languages were added and there is a new Mac OS X Framework.
Scripts written in lua can expand VLC media player's capabilities (read Youtube, Dailymotion URLs, fetch meta-data...)
See http://wiki.videolan.org/What_is_cool_in_0.9 for more information.

This is a major new release that requires packaging changes due to the
new frontend rewrite. We are past feature freeze but due to the
significance of this new release I would like to try gettingit into
intrepid. We can fall back to backports if this becomes prohitively
impossible to do within our release schedule.
On 9/15/08, Daniel Miles <email address hidden> wrote:
> Public bug reported:
>
> Binary package hint: vlc
>
> VLC 0.9.2 has just been released. This is a major update to the current
> version of VLC in the repositories.
>
> The website is currently a little flaky, but the changes include:
>
>
> What's new in this version:
> The 0.9 version of VLC media player adds a new interface module for
> Linux, Unix and Windows, a media library and an improved playlist, many new
> inputs and codecs support and many new audio and video filters.
> For video playback, new protocols, new codecs, new demuxers and many
> bug-fixes have been added to support more formats.
> For audio playback, cover art and metadata support (and editing) have
> been vastly enhanced. It can play audio when the playback speed is changed.
> For the developers, libVLC has been simplified and improved, many
> bindings for many languages were added and there is a new Mac OS X
> Framework.
> Scripts written in lua can expand VLC media player's capabilities (read
> Youtube, Dailymotion URLs, fetch meta-data...)
> See http://wiki.videolan.org/What_is_cool_in_0.9 for more information.
>
> I believe that this justifies a freeze exception for Intrepid...
>
> ** Affects: vlc (Ubuntu)
> Importance: Undecided
> Status: New
>
> --
> Please update VLC to 0.9.2
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/270404
> You received this bug notification because you are a member of MOTU
> Media Team, which is subscribed to vlc in ubuntu.
>

Another update, I spoke with a MOTU release team member who is tentatively supportive of the update pending how testing goes. So my current plan is to get some testing packages of this release into the ~motumedia PPA and see how this works out. I'll need everyone's help to give feedback on how well these testing packages work so we know if we can put them in Intrepid.

* Restored the old behavior of --sout-keep. It is now de-activated by default.
* Skins2 interface repaired on Windows.
* Multiple bugfixes.

Changes between 0.9.1 and 0.9.0:
--------------------------------

* Multiple bug fixes.

Changes between 0.8.6i and 0.9.0:
---------------------------------

Important notes:
----------------
* This release will need Windows 2000 and Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger), or more
recent to work correctly
* The HTTP interface is now only available on the local machine by default.
If you want to make it available from other machines, you will have to
edit the ".hosts" file.
- On UNIX/Linux, the file is in /usr/share/vlc/http/.hosts
If you're using the old http interface, it's located in
/usr/share/vlc/http/old/.hosts
- On Windows they are in C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\http\.hosts and
C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\http\old\.hosts
- On Mac OS X, you can find it in VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/share/http/.hosts
and respectively in VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/share/http/old/.hosts
* This version of VLC contains a new interface for Windows and Linux.
This interface has a fullscreen controller and simplified preferences.
This interface lacks the "Streaming Wizard" that used to be present in VLC
0.8.6, but provides basic profiles.
* The behavior of --sout-keep was changed. It's now activated by default.
* The marq, mosaic and logo commands in the rc interface changed. They
now require a target name as their first argument. Example:
vlc --sub-filter "marq@test{marquee=Hello}" -I rc <somevideo>
You can then use commands like: @test marq-marquee Goodbye
If you didn't name the object using @test, its name will default to the
plugin name (hence 'marq') in this example.
These new commands are also available in the telnet interface.
* The "rtp" access output module has been removed.
Please use the RTP stream output instead, e.g.:
Old: '#std{access=rtp,mux=ts,dst=239.255.1.2:5004,sap}'
New: '#rtp{mux=ts,dst=239.255.1.2,port=5004,sap}'
* You now need to append --m3u-extvlcopt to your command line to enable
EXTVLCOPT options parsing in m3u playlists. Note that only a limited set
of options is available to m3u playlists (CVE-2007-6683).
* The old access:url syntax is no longer supported to resolve ambiguities
with some file names. Use access://url instead.
E.g.: vlc:quit -> vlc://quit ; udp:@239.255.12.12 -> udp://@239.255.12.12
* The ffmpeg module has been removed and replaced by the new avcodec,
avformat, swscale (or imgresample if you use a swscale-less ffmpeg build)
and postproc modules.
* The web plugins ActiveX (IE)/Firefox/Mozilla/Safari now recognize the
following states: IDLE/CLOSE=0, OPENING=1, BUFFERING=2, PLAYING=3, PAUSED=4,
STOPPING=5, FORWARD=6, BACKWARD=7, ENDED=8, ERROR=9. With FORWARD and
BACKWARD being reserved for future implementations and are thus not
functional atm.
* Croping and padding in transcode are now done using the croppadd video
filter. For example:
transcode{vcodec=mp2v,vfilter=croppadd{cropttop=20,cropbottom...

To add to Jean-Baptiste's list of things needed, a new ffmpeg SVN synch is also needed to have a proper VLC experience. Especially libavcodec. Siretart advised that ffmpeg probably wont be updated for Intrepid in bug 263153 where he said "intrepid will definitly not see any ffmpeg update at this point". If we dont update ffmpeg there will be a bunch of bugs reported by VLC users in Intrepid that are already fixed upstream.

I don't even know what CVE is, except that this bug now references a lot of whatever it is...

Is it a possibility to have a disparate implementation of ffmpeg for VLC? That way we won't cause bugs or regressions - or anything, really - in any other packages, it can install somewhere else as a dependency for VLC as ffmpeg-vlc or somesuch...?

everyone please stop spamming the bug report with +1's. I am not
stupid I know how much everyone wants this release but useless
comments here only get in the way of the work.

On 9/17/08, Scott Kitterman <email address hidden> wrote:
> This is still blocked on getting an updated, working package.
>
> --
> Please update VLC to 0.9.2
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/270404
> You received this bug notification because you are a member of MOTU
> Media Team, which is subscribed to vlc in ubuntu.
>

Ok, boys and girls, thanks to your kind MOTU Media team buddy siretart, we now have our first testing packages for VLC 0.9.2. It's been uploaded to the PPA linked below. I'd like the help of testers to report on how well this package works, any missing features, etc, and I'd like for fellow MOTUs/contributors to inspect the packaging. I've had a chance to go through it and it looks pretty sane to me.

Thanks for your hard work packaging this new version. I have done a small amount of testing.

Upon selecting a video in nautilus to run using VLC, a box popped up asking for my preference of how to download album art. I could also hear the video start playing in the background, but had no way to control or see it since this dialog box was all that was there. Is it possible to set this option with a default so that the user doesn't have to deal with it? Rhythmbox downloads album art automatically, so I don't see any reason why VLC can't do this by default either.

The video can start playing immediately and plays the sound, but the visual part can take a while to appear (on one occasion, 3 seconds). When it does appear, it can appear with corruption for a few seconds (using xvid). This isn't a big deal, but it would be better if it takes its time loading, and starts all at once.

Moving other windows over a playing VLC window leaves remnants of the picture on that window (I tested with nautilus). I also moved the VLC window itself around and found it left picture on the panel. While moving it, it then froze my system. ctrl-alt-del/bksp were of no use, I had to hard reset. This bug is a blocker for VLC 0.9.2.

"Upon selecting a video in nautilus to run using VLC, a box popped up asking for my preference of how to download album art. I could also hear the video start playing in the background, but had no way to control or see it since this dialog box was all that was there. Is it possible to set this option with a default so that the user doesn't have to deal with it? Rhythmbox downloads album art automatically, so I don't see any reason why VLC can't do this by default either."

Well, by default VLC asks at first start and doesn't do anything special. I can do a patch for ubuntu if you want to make stuffs default. Moreover --no-qt-ask-privacy will force this to not be shown.

John Dong wrote:
> Ok, boys and girls, thanks to your kind MOTU Media team buddy siretart,
> we now have our first testing packages for VLC 0.9.2. It's been uploaded
> to the PPA linked below. I'd like the help of testers to report on how
> well this package works, any missing features, etc, and I'd like for
> fellow MOTUs/contributors to inspect the packaging. I've had a chance to
> go through it and it looks pretty sane to me.
>
>
> https://edge.launchpad.net/~motumedia/+archive
>
Just out of curiosity, Was libass compiled in?

Ok, at this point I feel confident enough in the ~ppa8 revision that I'll give my endorsement to the MOTU release team, as a member of ~motumedia, that it is in our best interest to include this new VLC release in Intrepid.

On 09/20/2008 11:12 PM, StefanPotyra wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On Sunday 21 September 2008 04:38:04 Starks wrote:
>
>> StefanPotyra wrote:
>>
>>> out of curiousity: why does libass need to be compiled in?
>>>
>> without it, vlc can't play styled subtitles. it's a core feature of
>> 0.9.2 and all future releases.
>>
>
> but why does this work when being built in vs. linked to it dynamically?
>
> Cheers,
> Stefan.
>
>
I don't claim to understand the intricacies of linked libraries, but as
far I know, VLC cannot render styled subtitles unless libass
(libass1+libass-dev or the .libass contrib) are used and the
--enable-libass line is included in the build configuration.

On 09/20/2008 11:18 PM, John Dong wrote:
> Ok, at this point I feel confident enough in the ~ppa8 revision that
> I'll give my endorsement to the MOTU release team, as a member of
> ~motumedia, that it is in our best interest to include this new VLC
> release in Intrepid.
>
>
awesomesauce

Excellent, thank you everyone for your work. Running the ~ppa9 version on Alpha 6 with an Nvidia GeForce4 MX 420 with the open source driver. Not sure if this is a VLC or a packaging bug, but it plays videos fine, including unencrypted DVDs (with menu structure, yay), flv, etc, except any interaction with the menus blanks out the video image, while the sound is still playing. Moving the VLC window using the top window bar brings the video back. This doesn't work in fullscreen mode since there is no window to move, but ctrla-alt-right to move worskspaces and then back almost works. It brings back everything in the image except a black space where the workspace switching icon was. It's well worth the upgrade for the extra features so far it seems, but this last bit would be nice to fix.

My only concern is that this is considered part of mythbuntu (at least is on of the Mythbuntu live disk) so I would like to hear their opinion about it (Mario?).
If they are fine about introducing this so late, considering the bugs this is fixing and the security concerns I don't see why we should not get this on board.

This is added to our live disk mainly as a convenience factor, we don't do rigorous testing with it, so as long as basic testing for distro inclusion is satisfactory, I think newer versions on the live disk are quite beneficial.

* add libxul-dev to build-depends
* make sure that vlc is build against libxul in configure. This doesn't
change anything in the package, but makes it more robust if building
in an 'unclean' chroot or when modifying the package.
* debian/control: make Vcs-* fields point to the motumedia branch
* add libx264-dev and libass-dev to build-depends
LP: #210354, #199870
* actually enable libass support by passing --enable-libass to configure
* enable libdca: add libdca-dev to build depends and --enable-libdca
* install the x264 plugin.